My grandmother gasped, but the two goddesses looked at each other. “You are right.” The three-faced goddess smiled back at her sister. “She is the one.” The Moon Goddess just nodded.

“I’m the one for what?” My mouth moved too fast for me to even consider questioning a couple of goddesses.

My grandmother gasped. “We do not question a goddess, Amy. Never mind two.” She eyed the two and bowed again, but the two just smirked.

“We do not need blind followers. You can question our judgement, or our cause.” The Moon Goddess smiled as she walked closer to us. “We expect it. Crave it, really, because it means that we have done our jobs.”

“Your jobs?” I looked over my shoulder at my grandmother, but she shrugged.

The three-faced goddess stepped up next to her sister. “Yes. We want our followers, our children, to have free will. To demand it. To walk through their day and fight back tooth and nail, because that is what life is about: making choices, striving for greatness, living.”

The Moon Goddess nodded. “When I created Lycans and wolves, I wanted them to choose their own lives, their own paths. I gave them mates because I saw what would happen if people were left to find their own partners. I have watched over the humans and seen their heartbreak. I have felt their heart break myself.” She looked down at her hands. “But free will doesn’t always mean walking the path of good, and within the light, the shadows grow.”

“The shadows? The rogues?” The Moon Goddess nodded.

“And those that wield their magic for evil. Evil, in all forms, is a choice.” The crone stood in front of me now, pale yet strong. “And sometimes, sometimes, we need a champion.”

My grandmother gasped. “No, you can’t mean Amy.”

I looked at her, but she looked terrified. “What?” I was tired and slow.

“We do.” The Moon Goddess came to my side and cupped my face. “You are from my flesh, my power, my blood. But you also stem from my sister. Her kernel is in you, and you have nourished it.”

“Three-spirited one. You walk on both paths, and both paths need a champion.”

“Champion? I just want to live.” I stared up into the bright eyes of the goddess.

“You have seen the future, lived it. You had to have seen the dark times were coming.” I nodded. Before I died, there were murmurs, but I didn’t believe them.

“They were just stories.”

“Were they?” The goddess dropped her hands and leaned in to kiss my forehead. I felt the moon-blessed mark flare to life. “Stories tend to hold a kernel of truth.” She stepped back, and the three-faced goddess came to me.

“And those stories, those lies that hide the truth, are a weapon. A weapon that makes you think that there is nothing, because if there was, the world would collapse.”

“No.” My grandmother shook her head. She understood what they were saying, but I was still lost.

But the goddess nodded. “We are at the end. If someone doesn’t intervene...then you.” She cupped my face and kissed my brow. There was a searing pain that wrapped across my forehead and down my temples. “You will all be lost.”

“Lost…as in dead?” I looked up at her, and she nodded.

Chapter 286

“The Lycans were almost too late, almost, but hiding isn’t an option any longer.” She stepped back, and my mind spun. I looked down at the ground, trying to clear my mind, trying to make sense of her words.

The Lycans were almost too late…hiding isn’t an option.

“You can’t mean…” I looked up to find myself alone. I spun, but my grandmother had gone too. I dropped the shovel and sprinted to the fire where all the girls were. I skidded on the wet ground, and they turned, mouths dropping open. “TheLycansarestillalive.” My words were rushed, coming out as one. But I stared at my friends, waiting for them to react. They were all staring at my forehead. “Did you hear me?” I waited for a reaction, a realization like I had, but there was nothing. So I said it again, slower. “The Lycans are still alive.”

That worked. They all snapped to my eyes. “What?” Toya grabbed for my arm.

“I think the Lycans are still alive. Or some of them, anyway.”

“Why?”

“The Goddess…”

“The Moon Goddess?” Wendy furrowed her brow.

I nodded. “And the three-faced Goddess came to speak to me. I’ll tell you all about it, but the last thing she said before she disappeared is that the Lycans were almost too late, almost.” I emphasized the ‘almost’. “And that hiding was no longer an option.”

“So they are…hiding?” Hanna questioned, and I pointed and nodded.

“Okay, we can circle back around to the Lycans.” Micca waved her hands. “What the fuck is that?”